The present invention is in the field of computer-telephony-integration (CTI) including Internet Protocol Network Telephony (IPNT) and has particular application to methods for initiating and completing customer call surveys.
Telephones are one of the most widely used communication tool in the world. At early stages in development, telephones were merely a convenient tool to allow people to communicate while they are physically separated. At the present time, however, many organizations use telephones to market products and services, provide technical support to customers, allow customers to access their own financial data, and much, much more. Thus, telephone systems have become a widely used major business and marketing tool.
In order to effectively use telephone systems for business and marketing purposes, telephony call centers have been developed. In a call center, typically a relatively large number of agents handle telephone communication with clients. A typical call center has at least a telephone switching apparatus, such as a PBX, which has a trunk for incoming calls an station-side ports for connecting to agent""s telephones. The switching apparatus may be an Automatic Call Distributor (ACD), distributing calls to agents as they become available, or the switching apparatus may be controlled by a connected processor in what is known in the art as a Computer Telephony Integration (CTI) system. The matching of calls between clients and agents is typically performed by software.
A simple example is used here to describe a few of the many advantages of call centers. When a call is made to a call center, the telephone number of the calling line is typically made available to the call center by a telephone carrier. Based on this data, software in the call center can access a database server to obtain information about the client placing the call. The software can now route the call to an agent who can best handle the call based on predefined criteria (e.g., language skill, knowledge of products the customer bought, etc.). Such a system is known as skill-based routing, known to the present inventor. In some cases the software may immediately transfer relevant information about the client to a computer screen used by the agent (screen pop). Thus, the agent can gain valuable information about the client prior to receiving the call. As a result, the agent can more effectively handle the telephone transaction.
In recent years, advances in computer technology, telephony equipment, and infrastructure have provided many opportunities for improving telephone service in publicly switched and private telephone intelligent networks. Similarly, development of separate information and data network known as the Internet, together with advances in computer hardware and software have led to a new multi-media telephone system known in the art as Internet Protocol Network Telephony (IPNT). In IPNT calls are handled directly between computers over a digital network, and voice data is packaged as data packets.
Under ideal circumstances IPNT telephony has all the quality of conventional public and private telephone intelligent networks, and many advantages accruing from the aspect of direct computer-to-computer linking. Circumstances re: the Internet are, however, often less than ideal, and bandwidth limitations typically lead to delay and interruption of voice communications. Video calls using such as the Internet rather than conventional telephony networks with dedicated bandwidth are even less efficient because higher bandwidth is required.
Still, even given these realities, In IPNT as well as in the older intelligent and CTI-enhanced telephony systems, both privately and publicly switched, it is desirable to handle more calls faster and to provide improved service in every way.
One of the major goals in operation of a call center, either CTI or IPNT-enhanced, is to insure customer satisfaction. One of the methods commonly employed in this regard involves taking customer surveys. In a customer survey, questions are presented to the caller relating to customer satisfaction and agent performance. In this way, a call center administrator may evaluate agent performance. Adjustments may then be made depending on the results of several surveys involving particular agents. For example, if more than one caller has experienced a problem with a particular agent, that problem can be isolated and appropriate actions such as additional training and the like may be undertaken.
In some cases, surveys are taken in order to improve agent responsibility and professional demeanor. In other instances, surveys may be initiated for the purpose of obtaining additional information about the clients such as likes or dislikes of certain products or services, or perhaps to illicit suggestions from the clients about what types of changes they would like too see in future products, and so forth.
In current art, customer surveys are accomplished by making a call to the client either before (xe2x80x9ccold callingxe2x80x9d) or after the client has had some form of contact with the company, as would be the case of a typical follow-up survey. In other instances, surveys may be mailed to the client to fill out and mail back. Often, a second contact with the client occurs well after the initial company-client contact, as would be the case with mailed surveys.
The results obtained in such surveys can be vague or misleading, partly because of the time factors involved. Furthermore, there is often considerable delay with such call backs. For example, a live agent may already have a large backlog of repeat customers to call. Therefore, delays can be considerable resulting in the customer not being home at the time of the call back, or perhaps, the customer forgetting many important aspects regarding the original contact with the particular company.
What is clearly needed is a method and apparatus whereby a callcenter administrator may select calls at random or by percentage, and initiate a voluntary survey with a customer in an automated fashion and immediately at the end of the agent-customer transaction.
In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, an automatic survey system for a call center is provided, comprising a selector for selecting callers to be asked to participate in a survey; an interrogator adapted to ask selected callers if they will participate; and a router adapted to route calls from selected callers who do not wish to participate to agents based on non-survey routing rules, and calls from customers who do wish to participate according to survey routing rules. The router is also adapted to route call after transaction with an agent to a survey point, where a survey with the caller is conducted.
In some embodiments the survey point comprises a live survey agent who conducts a survey with the caller. In some other embodiments the survey point comprises an IVR adapted to conduct a survey with the caller. IN still other embodiments, at the survey point, the survey is partly automated, and partly conducted by a live agent. In some embodiments the system further comprises an automatic dialer for calling back callers who agreed to the survey, but who disconnected after the agent transaction without holding for the survey.
In another aspect of the invention a call center adapted for automated surveys is provided, comprising a telephone switching apparatus having a trunk line for receiving calls from a network and station-side ports connected to telephones at agent stations; a CTI processor connected by a CTI link to the telephone switching apparatus; a first router for routing calls to agents according to first routing rules; and a survey router coupled to the CTI processor. The survey router selects incoming calls according to survey routing rules, causes selected calls to be transferred to an IVR for determination if the caller will participate in a survey, and routes calls from callers who indicate willingness to participate to selected agents for processing, and then to a survey point, and calls from callers who wish to not participate according to the first routing rules.
In some embodiments of the call center, at the survey point, the call is connected to a survey agent who conducts a survey with the caller. IN other embodiments, at the survey point, the caller is connected to an IVR which performs the survey. In still other embodiments the survey may be conducted partly by IVR and partly by a live agent. In some embodiments there may be a dial-back system adapted to dial-up callers who indicated a willingness to participate but disconnected before being transferred to a survey point, and to then transfer willing callers to the survey point.
In yet another aspect a method for practicing the invention is provided, comprising steps of (a) selecting incoming calls for potential participation in a survey according to survey routing rules rather than principal routing rules; (b) transferring the selected incoming calls to an interrogation point; (c) querying the caller at the interrogation point if the caller will participate in the survey; (d) routing those calls for which the caller does not wish to participate by the principal routing rules, to agents to conduct the business of the call; and (e) routing those calls for which the caller indicates a willingness to participate in the survey to selected agents for conducting the business of the call, and then to a survey point. In step (a) incoming calls may be selected partly on a percentage basis. In step (c) querying the caller may be conducted automatically by IVR. There may also be an additional step (f) for calling back callers who indicated a willingness to participate in a survey, but disconnected before being transferred to a survey point.
The invention as taught in enabling detail in description below provides an efficient and flexible way for host organizations having call centers to test the efficiency and competency of agents, and to improve service to callers.